Legal Question in Family Law in Virginia

Virginia does not have a classification for long-term marriages or short-term marriages.

In Virginia, a judge considers many factors.

One of the factors is "3. The duration of the marriage;"

However, there is no classification that X number of years counts as a long-term marriage and there are no automatic results flowing from long term or short term.

Instead, the judge will consider the length of the marriage along with all other factors in deciding what is just.

Code § 20-107.3(E) requires the trial court to consider the following factors before entering an equitable distribution award:

1. The contributions, monetary and nonmonetary, of each party to the well-being of the family;

2. The contributions, monetary and nonmonetary, of each party in the acquisition and care and maintenance of such marital property of the parties;

3. The duration of the marriage;

4. The ages and physical and mental condition of the parties;

5. The circumstances and factors which contributed to the dissolution of the marriage, specifically including any ground for divorce under the provisions of subdivisions (1), (3) or (6) of § 20-91 or § 20-95.

6. How and when specific items of such marital property were acquired;

7. The debts and liabilities of each spouse, the basis for such debts and liabilities, and the property which may

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serve as security for such debts and liabilities;

8. The liquid or nonliquid character of all marital property;

9. The tax consequences to each party;

10. The use or expenditure of marital property by either of the parties for a nonmarital separate purpose or the dissipation of such funds, when such was done in anticipation of divorce or separation or after the last separation of the parties; and

11. Such other factors as the court deems necessary or appropriate to consider in order to arrive at a fair and equitable monetary award.